Rishi Sunak on Monday became the new prime minister of UK and the country’s first leader of colour, capping a stunning reversal in fortunes just weeks after failing in his first attempt to lead the ruling Tories.
Sunak, who is set to be UK’s first Indian prime minister won the support of an overwhelming majority of the Conservative Party MPs and became the first non-white PM, enabling him to claim the keys to No 10 (the official residence of the UK PM).
He emerged as the PM following the resignation of former PM, Liz Truss last Thursday.
Here are five things you need to know about Sunak:
- Sunak was born on 12th May, 1980 in Southampton, England to Indian parents – Yashvir and Usha Sunak who migrated to Britain from East Africa in the 1960s.
- He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford (2001) and had a Master’s in Business Administration at Stanford University, USA (2006).
- In August 2009, Sunak married Akshata Murthy, the daughter of the Indian billionaire N.R Narayana Murthy, the founder of a technology company, Infosys.
- Sunak introduced a programme which provided £330 billion in emergency support for businesses as a furlough scheme for employees on March 17, 2020.
- Also, Rishi Sunak was the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) from February 13 2020 – July 5 2022 under Boris Johnson’s government.
